Course announcement

Goal and Objectives

Scoring Guide for Reflective Writing (and Speaking) about Reading

Basic Reading:

The course has three core secondary texts. Everyone should obtain them and read them in full. All three are readily available from the internet at prices which, even including shipping, are well below what the bookstore would charge. Paperback issues are OK.

Two of them are studies of individual giants of the period of "Reason & Revolution":

Helferich, Gerard. Humboldt's Cosmos: Alexander von Humboldt and the Latin American Journey That Changed the Way We See the World. New York: Gotham, 2004.

Adams, William Howard. The Paris Years of Thomas Jefferson. New Haven: Yale, 1997.

The third is intended to serve as a deep survey of the time before, during and after the period of "Reason & Revolution," and as a stimulus for discussion of contentious issues:

Barzun, Jacques. From Dawn to Decadence - 1500 to the Present: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life. New York: HarperCollins, 2000.

The direct purpose of Barzun is to help us encounter the period of the Enlightenment, so you should be reading Part II ("From the Bog and Sand of Versailles to the Tennis Court") right from the start of the course and then throughout. If you find things in Part II difficult to understand for lack of knowledge about what came before, start consulting Part I. For a look at what happened after the period of Reason and Revolution, start with Part III.

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